New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-12-05
The COURT THAT SAVED SHARP
AN APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF APPEALS
HAS THE CONSTITUTION BEEN ovERRULEDi-sTIK.
ING POINTS MADE BY LEANED JURIsr

|
paper press, l never felt my de endencc upon 10
as the eat Fighter of WRONGS as do at this
moment, when | have just finished reading tho
ANA ing opinions in which the Court of Appcals
reve es the judgn ent in the OF the PEG IA
aga nst Jacob Sharp Ordinarily when this
court OF final resort has delivered its dictum,
protest is folly. But In this case something
must be done. The people arc in great dilemma
Eth they must provide themselves with a new
{ constitution or new Pnal Cole or a new
Court Of APP Gals, or they must abandon all hopo
Of checking or purishing political corruption.
If the Court OF Appea is right in its decision, Wa
must promptly pass new laws on the subject Of
bribery. or all idea of cOnvicting this class OF
criminals, the only class whom the people in
their organic law have denounced, must be- given
up 1t is to make this necessity Gear and 10
CD n what / trust may be fruitful discussion
CO. corning the best methods of meeting the case
that be- hearing in your influential columns.
Some of your con;cmI orarcs, with a low'inc,s
of spirit that i'll becomes American citizenship
are advising the people to bend a humble and
acquicsccnt knee to tbs august court They
revcrcntly say that it is not ours to reason why
nor make reply. So far as Shagps fate is con-
Ccrncd, | don't suppose that reasoning or replying
will do us any good The safeguards Of limo
ccncc7 have been cfTcctually thrown around him,
and off he goes scot free with his 81 900 900
plumber or what part of it remains after satisfy
ing the eminent counsel who drew the safeguards
down But a serious blow has been dealt 10 MS.
the people. by this high court and as the court il
not our sovereign, but merely the Interpreter ~
our enacted wall, il seems strange advice that wa
should act craven part On the contrary, IT 10
incumbent upon TO look the situation in tho
face to glance at the record Of this high court and
how well il has served us, to examine the pres
ent decision and if it has fairly interpreted our
legislative voice and 10 determine what must b,
done to give better effect TO our will.
For, certainly, il has not expressed the popular
desire. If the law be it. declares, then one
officers OF justice need better tools to work with.
Far removed from the active influence Of tia
rcoplc surrounded year after year by the cold al
mO>pherc ri tcchnicalitcs ana theories dealing not
with live facts but purely with dry statutes, this
high court. be IFS motives ever 80 pure has de-
livorcd from the hands Of justice the two greatest
criminals Of the age. 1t has completely nulliiicd
the efforts of the people of this city to purge their
nunci al government Of great thieves 1t has
made Ounces Of our Judges. We knew that iurCs
were uncertain. but it has assured Us that judges
arc more uncertain still. II is pretty hard 10 Ic-
icvc that men who have been successful at tie
bar and eminent upon the bench for n Of
years are mere gucsScrs OF law, and yet that IL
where this high court ranks our General Term.
Can this assurance be accepted without shaking
our confidence in courts altogether There have
lcen appeals from this high court TO the supreme
Court of the United States, and / should not like
10 state how many times our Court OF Appeals has
been reversed Can it be that all these august
tribunals are mere gucs>crs OF law? If 50. happy
are we that there is a limit to the guessing some
where.
The Court of Appeals is somewhat addicted 70
the saving Of great criminals by making priceless
rreccdcnts for the protection of innocence. Iher
remain upon its bench two judges who saved society
by helping to free Tweed Another. who signal
zcs his triumph over Mr.. Justice Daniels by re-
ycrSinr him without giving his opinion the pocs
compliment Of a passing notice, is the son Of
third member of that notable court His father
threw the safeguards about Tweed and the son
comes to the rescue Of innocence by frccin. SHARP.
| have in my library copy Of "The London
lines" published soon after the final decision IN
the Tweed case reached England. II r'corls soma
proceedings lcforc the Lords Justices Of England.
the highest tribunal except The House OF Lords
in the British Empire Mr.. Judah = Benjamin.
ciSion in the Tweed case had got ont wit =
habcaS corpus for the alleged Sir Roger i.clbornr.
who had been sentenced T. cumulative Punishment.
Just rs Chief Justice Davis sentenced Tweed Mr..
benjamin brought the prisoner lcforc the I.ords
justices and demanded his release 4 very high
AMI eminent court he said hal rendered decision
cumulative punishment Illegal. ami
hc began 10 read it. Lord Justice James sto,p ped
him surely, Mr.. reniamn" he said. tho
American Court OF Appeals was deciding th' I've
case upon American statutes" BIT MIR Pennmin
said, oh no. upon tie English law rs il has stool
from time immcmorial7 The Lords Justices dill
not leave the bench. They did not even give
for the Crown an opportunity t. be heard
They prom ty rcmandcd the prisoner and assured
Mr.. BENJAMIN that the American CoUlt OF AfpcaiS
had acted under n strange misrepresentation OF
the English law. in which there was long lire
Of decisions supporting the just aud common
sense proposition that man who lad been charged
with several crimes in several counts of an mii6-
Incnt should he punished for each crime OF which
he was adiudgcd guilty. and against this law there
were no decisions whatever. This. Mr.. Elitor is
the somewhat contemrtuous way in which the de-
riSon Of our Court of Appeals in the Tweed c1>e
was treated by the highest bench in England. AMI
the English judges were right. The "lons line
of decisions" supporting the action q Judge Davis
we've all cited in the brief of the people Will;
the only adverse precedent which the A psllaio
Court could find was one communicated to it per
,onally by lawyer up the State which had nrNes
been reported in the books. But 10 this il seems
he learned court attached more importance than
70 the long line of authentic prccodcntS And tho
'ourt unanimous. 100. unanimous in Iwccis
'aSe. unanimous in Sharp's-always unanimous
when innocence demands protection
The Tweed law therefore, j. not law-t has
)een disregarded in Massachusetts and elsewhere
But il is the law of New-lOrll We have more law
Il this kind too. In the case OF DR.. Lambert.
he insurance president. who convicted for
perjury in swearing 10 false report, judicial
courage again asserted itself against the camor OF
L. n,,l :,,.a nl